Remote Start, setting the heated seats and steering wheel to come on?

I'll survive without paying a subscription. This is my second Toyota that the engine shuts off after remote starting. Still bought the Tundra anyway.

 

Doesn't work

 

The heated seats and heated steering wheel absolutely do not turn on with your auto start even if you left them on the night before. The light stays on but they do not produce any heat until you start the car properly.

 

It’s a subscription because you essentially have a cellphone/ data plan in the vehicle to communicate with it. I don’t like it either but I don’t see the car mfg paying that monthly bill for you indefinitely.

 

not quite, if the airbag sensor doesnt detect a body in the seat they still wont turn on i think. the wifes seat never warms up even with it turned on until she actually sits in the seat even with the truck running normally.

 

I’m not sure where the confusion is. When you remote start the truck it does automatically warm or cool it to wherever your temp setpoint is. I only ever remote start when it’s an ice box and I don’t feel like walking out to start it but it works great. Until you open the door..

My Toyota app quit working after a year and required a subscription after. But the fob still works

 

*Ford has entered the chat*

 

They are using that “cellphone/ data plan” to collect metrics from your vehicle whether you subscribe to remote services or not. So yes, they will pay that monthly bill.

 

Just tried it this morning and my seat and steering wheel definately heated with remote start, I did set it last night though.

 

Here are my observations on the subject.
When it is cold out <40F i set my heated wheel on & seats to 2 bars. I put the climate control to Auto and set to 72F or higher.
When I remote start I do get some heat into the cabin but it takes most of the 10 minute timer for some heat to come out. The wheel and seats do heat up but only a little. I can see people saying they don't work at all, but when I touch the wheel and then the shifter there is a difference in temperature, but not much, same with the seats they are not stone cold but not very warm. The difference in how much they heat up is dependent on how cold the outside ends up being. If it is 40F then i can feel some warmth after remote start, but if it 20F it feels like they are not working. But comparing the wheel and shifter the "Feel" of temperature, there is some difference (wheel being a higher temp) but again very slight.
Interestingly when i get in and "restart" Yes very annoying. The wheel and seats heat up to the point of feeling some real warmth after about 30 seconds or so.
My guess is upon start up with no heat sink (your butt) the system does not want to add full power so it doesn't over heat and cause possible damage especially if the seat heater is set to 3 bars. (that will roast your chestnuts before too long) That same logic doesn't work for the wheel though.

As for the cabin heat from the climate control, I find with out some kind of load this motor heats up very slowly, and the system most likely prioritizes heating the engine up before sending heated coolant to the heater core. My reason for this opinion is from my experience traveling too and from work. Going to work I have ~10 miles of back road driving which takes longer to heat up as apposed to going home I'm on the highway within a 1/2 mile and the truck heats up faster. To corroborate this theory, when on Auto and the car is start without remote start the blower is set to low flow but as the truck heats up the blower spools up and blows more air i can hear the difference in blower motor sound. But I will say the air flow even at full blast is pretty poor. YMMV
Come On Toyota if you want to retain us Toyota fans as loyal customers please fix these annoying issues. To me it seems to be all computer logic driven and could be updated with a system update. And DON"T make us have to buy a new vehicle to see these improvements.

 

This ^^^

I leave my truck on Auto set to 68 degrees. It heats or cools on a remote start depending on inside cab temps.

I have noticed the heating function takes longer, especially on frigid days, which I believe is normal. The heat and fan does automatically ramp up as the engine warms, but 10 minutes of idling usually isn't enough to get the heat cranking at full capacity.

The seat and steering wheel heater are of no concern to me, since I rarely use either feature.

 

The sad thing is, it works perfectly on my wife's Lexus RX350. Seat heaters come on, heat fires up, AND it doesn't shut off when you open the door!! You still have to push the start button, but it all works well.
Why don't they program this for Toyota as well. Guess us lowly Toyota owners obviously don't get such perks.

 

This.

It's been in the negatives here in the morning for the last week or so and even the full 10 minute run with the remote start doesn't fully warm everything up. Seats and wheel are warm but not fully up to temp and the HVAC is slightly warm but not blowing out hot air yet, but it is working and makes a big difference. There have been a day or two that I have started another remote start cycle after the first 10 minute run expired and by the time I get out to the truck, it is nice and toasty, seats hot, wheel hot etc. Maybe they can update the run times for the remote start to let the truck run longer which would help IMO. And just like everyone else, the truck shutting off when the door is unlocked is annoying but not the end of the world

 

I'm finding that simply keeping the system in Auto with a reasonable set point (say 70 deg) it will either cool or heat aggressively depending on the inside temperature. So if it's cold, the heater gets after it without any need to anticipate that the night before.

As of for seat heater, mine seems to work fine on remote start. Strangely I'm not equipped with steering wheel heat.

Then there's the idiocy of engine stop upon door (even tailgate!) opening. I've had half a dozen previous vehicles with remote start and not a one of them would kill the engine. That's just a complete whiff...really stupid.

I do understand the timeout. The first time some poor soul died because the thing had been running for 3 hours in the garage Toyota would get sued into the stratosphere. I would like 15 min but a double start does work.

 

It does do this. But that’s not ideal. For various reasons. But when it’s cold it should auto turn the windshield defrost on max, and max temp. To melt snow/ice. My Acura does this. And when it’s hot it’s max ac till it reaches the desired temp. Auto turns on heated or cooled seats depending on ambient temp, rear defrost, heated wheel. It all auto adjusts.

 

How does one get to access remote start?